Battle Royale UK: Blood and Rain
by Red Moon Blue Moon
Summary: A tightly knit Year 11 class has to fight it out in the ultimate battle for survival. Individual survival. This is an attempt at writing a thought provoking version of Battle Royale. Set in the UK.
1. Prologue: UK in 21st Century

**Disclaimer:**

**Please feel free to copy and re-distribute this work however you like, as long as you mention me (Red Moon Blue Moon) somewhere in the credits. For any other copyright issues, please E-mail me on , I will get back to you ASAP.**

**More importantly, any resemblances of any of the characters in this work to any person(s) I know, or know me, or know of me, in real life, in any way, shape, or form, is purely coincidental. Please do not pigeon hole any of my friends into any of the characters in this work, this is most certainly NOT the intention of the author.**

**_**

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**Prologue**

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"_Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: if it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. If it stops moving, subsidise it."_

Former US President, Ronald Reagan.

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At the dawn of the new millennium, the world economy collapsed. Within ten years, 50% of businesses across all sectors declared bankruptcy. Unemployment reached unprecedented levels, averaging 36% nationwide, and in many areas, the majority of the population had no fixed source of income. Inflation of all currencies sky rocketed, averaging 2.6 Trillion percent per year, effective rendering all savings worthless. Children played with bundles of hundred dollar bills on the streets of America because their parents couldn't afford to buy toys.

April 2015, as part of the "**The Harmonious Society**" proposed by the government, and following the lead of Japan, the "**Millennium Educational Reform Act**" was passed. A 3792 page document with black ink on white paper, detailing a series of laws referred to by the popular media as the "BR Act". In a nutshell, each year, a year 11 high school class is chosen at random, the students are placed on an island, and they must kill each other, until only one student survives. That student is the winner, and he/she is enrolled into the civil service fast track programme.

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**The class of 11NH:**

**_**

**Tutorial Group Teacher: **Miss. Haley .N.C;

**Total: **32 students; 15 boys, 17 girls.

_

**Girls:**

#1) Ann

#2) Abigail

#3) Beth

#4) Caroline

#5) Jessica

#6) Mary

#7) June

#8) Juliet

#9) Page

#10) Kelley

#11) Holly

#12) Amber

#13) Sara

#14) Dona

#15) Constance

#16) Jane

_

**Boys:**

#1) Matt

#2) Luke

#3) Peter

#4) Justine

#5) Robert

#6) Hassim

#7) Tyler

#8) Aaron

#9) James

#10) Cortez

#11) Evan

#12) Dylan

#13) Martin

#14) Guy

_

**Transfer Students:**

Girl #17) Tania

Boy #15) Sydney


	2. The Last Lesson: 32 students remaining

**Chapter 1: The Last Lesson**

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"_Education is what you have learned when you have forgotten all you have learned"_

Unknown

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_

She spinned the 6 inch knife around like a pencil, while the young soldiers standing along the walls looked at her in awe. Well, stared really, and some of them couldn't hide the hormones behind their eyes. One couldn't blame them, after all, they were supposed to be on guard, and that meant standing still and no talking, so what else could they do? But then again, even given the option, many of them wouldn't be able to resist looking this way. A woman in her late 20s, in a black knee length work skirt deliberately cut all the way along the thigh, a dark blue blouse deliberately unbuttoned to reveal just enough of her chest to make one wonder whether there wasn't a bra underneath. A pair of glasses and the lightness of her makeup were inadequate reminders that she a teacher. Maybe Art teachers are allowed to be a bit more, erm…, what's the word? Creative?

She doesn't seem to have noticed all those pairs of eyes looking her way. She just looked into the middle distance with blurry eyes, as if she was bored. That's quite a reasonable reaction, because she had nothing to do until the students lying in front of her wakes up from their drugged sleep. Of course, considering what she was about to tell her students, this level of calmness was perhaps a little disturbing. Although, she's probably lost in thought, thinking about that very thing.

_

The rain drops banged against the double glazed windows with the force of the Scottish wind behind them. The night sky flashed from time to time, followed by the low rumblings of rolling thunder. The old Lieutenant sitting on the floor was suddenly reminded of his daughter, by her likeness to this art teacher in front of him. He remembered how she lost her job, how she split up with a boyfriend he didn't even know she had, and how she came back home and told him everything was fine. He went up to her room one stormy winter night just like tonight, and caught her staring blankly just like the teacher in front of him. He asked to take her out for a meal, like the old times when she was a kid. But his daughter acted all so distantly, and told him everything's going to be fine, and he should stop interfering in her life, with emphasise on how much she hates his interferences. He shook his head and left. He never forgave himself for that, because the next morning, he found his daughter hanging from the ceiling, with a roll of toilet paper wrapped around her body, on which she wrote her suicide note. It wasn't long; it was just the few words he used to shout from the sidelines, at her high school hockey games:

"**_Go Rose! You can do it, Rose!_**"

Seeing those words repeated again and again on the toilet paper broke his heart. He spent days wandering around the streets like a ghost, then his old friends got worried for him, and suggested he must find something to do and get busy. One of them, an old pal from his SAS days, was now a desk job General working in an air conditioned office. This pal went a step further and drafted him into the Army as an officer under the National Service Act. After a few months at the Carver barracks mindlessly training the new conscripts, his company was assigned to some special mission to do with security in high schools. So they were flown out here in a stormy night, and here is some remote Scottish island he has never heard of. When they got here the island has already been evacuated, there was no one on the island other than a platoon sized unit from the Special Reconnaissance Regiment (SRR), lead by a Major Jacob.

The SRR Major took his Captain into a big tent and briefed him, for an unusually long time. He heard some loud shouting from inside the tent, but couldn't make out what they were arguing about. He was just walking over to ask what the problem was, since neither he nor his troops wanted to stand out in the storm for much longer, especially when they were standing in a school playground with the building right next to them. But the Major came out of the tent before he reached it, and told him in a very firm manor that his Captain has been re-assigned to a more important mission, and will be returned to Scotland via helicopter later tonight. The Major told the old Lt that it was his lucky day, and the old Lt will hereby be promoted to the acting commander of his company. Just at that moment, six helicopters came out of the storm, and began take turns to land on the football field next to them.

The Major told him that he has nothing to worry about, not that he looked worried in the first place. The Major went on to say the SRR unit alone was more than sufficient for this mission, and this bunch of ill-trained National Service conscripts was surplus and unnecessary anyway; and mostly likely just here for political reasons. He looked on questioningly. The Major sighed and wave to his troops to unload the students, before going over to the helicopters to greet the teacher. The old Lt was left a bit confused, but he figured it's best to leave the politics to the politicians and in the meantime just follow orders. So he ordered his soldiers to help with the unloading.

A loud thunderclap broke the old Lt's train of thought. He felt a little cold. His cotton uniform hasn't entirely dried yet, even though he's been sitting against the radiator. He turned to the nearest soldier and ordered him to go and make some tea.

_

Amber was the first to wake up, with a hangover. Maybe her excess body fat made the toxins more dilute. She found herself in a well lit primary school classroom; the bright colours and cartoon animals on the walls hurt her eyes. Her muscles tensed subconsciously as her eyes scanned across the soldiers around the classroom, the rifles they held tightly onto scared her. She followed their gaze, and saw a woman sitting on a chair by the whiteboard, the only piece of furniture in the room. Her eyes slowly widened as she realised who she was looking at, it was their tutor!

"_Hello, Miss Haley…_" her dry throat made her gasp and pause, speaking uncomfortably she asked: "_… Who?... hmm, I mean, hmm, What are we doing here?_"

Miss Haley pushed the knife back in its sheath on her belt, and smiled at Amber. Then she clicked her fingers and asked the soldiers to get the poor girl a cup of tea. The Lieutenant replied politely that they were not supposed to give the students anything other than their bags. Miss Haley shot him a murderous look and reminded him who was in charge of the programme. The Lt looked at the Major, who shrugged his shoulders and looked away indifferently. So the Lt shouted at his soldiers, who promptly went out and returned with a pot of tea and a few cups moments later, and placed it at Miss Haley's feet. She smiled again and thanked the soldier, then poured out four cups, offered one to the Special Forces Major, one to the old Lt, one to Amber, and sipped at the last cup herself.

"_Thank you, Miss Haley._" Amber picked up her cup, and tantalisingly sipped the hot tea which burned her tongue. She thought maybe emptying her mind of her thoughts might keep her mouth occupied for long enough for the tea to cool down. "_What happed on the coach, Miss Haley? Has something gone wrong? What are these soldiers doing here? Are we still going to the lake district for the geography trip?_"

"_Don't worry, everything's going to be alright. I will explain everything when the class are all awake, it saves time._" Miss Haley smiled again, and looked at her patiently. This unsettled Amber. Miss Haley did used to smile a lot, but this time there was something sinister about that smile. Amber blinked and told herself to stop worrying. Miss Haley said it's all going to be alright. Amber looked down at her tea and kept her gaze there, as the others soon began to stir and wake up too.

_

In the next quarter of an hour or so, the rest of the class woke up one by one, and everybody was full of questions. Miss Haley was bombarded with questions, but every time she just smiled and said it's better to wait for everyone to wake up first. The students went to wake up their friends, and began assembling into groups. They turn to each other and started chatting in worried voices, no one knew what was going on, and the last thing anyone remembered was sitting on a coach going to the Lake Districts for the trip. Surrounded by soldiers, confused and worried, no one noticed the tea cup in Amber's hand, and no one was bothered that they weren't offered any tea. That is, not until Abigail woke up. She noticed it very quickly, and after a few words with her cronies, she learned the situation, and soon got bored. As soon as the boredom washed over her, Amber's tea cup began to stand out like a thorn in her eye. So she brought her mates behind her, and went over to where Amber sat, still looking down at her tea.

"_Where d'yu get that from Amb? Not gonna get me one?_" Abigail said it in that annoying high pitched voice so typical of a certain type of inner city girls.

"_Sorry. I don't know if I can, sorry, you have to ask Miss Haley for one._" Instead of looking up, Amber's head sunk lower.

"_Pot's jus' ther', 'yu blind or some't? Get me a tea, 'n' one for mi mates too._" Abigail

Amber didn't answer.

"_T'yu deaf as well?_" Abigail bent down and twisted Amber's ear, "_You are gonna get me 'n' mi mates some tea yer? Can you hear me?_"

Amber looked up towards Miss Haley, looking for permission to touch the teapot. At least Abi's wouldn't hurt me in front of the teacher, she thought. Miss Haley stood up and looked right past Amber, and scanned across the classroom, she clapped her hands loudly to get the class's attention.

_

"_OK, class! Now that most of you are awake, let's make a start._" She looked around the classroom again, "_At least more of you are awake today than in most of my other classes._" No one laughed at the lame joke, but a faint smile flashed across Aaron's face. Aaron thought he was the only boy who listened to the teacher in high school art class instead of day dreaming about girls. And he always listened very intensely, with staring eyes.

"_This is my last lesson with you as a class, so pay extra attention to what I'm saying, OK? It might save your life one of these days, or most likely within the next three days._" She paused for a second, "_Do any of you know what Battle Royale is?_" Miss Haley turned and picked up a board marker and wrote on the board in big letters, BR Act.

A few students twitched uncomfortably or looked surprised at those words, but most were looking even more confused. Aaron put his hand up. Miss Haley gestures for him to speak.

"_I__t's some sort of complicated government to reform our education system by making us how to be more competitive, and how to be better citizens._" Aaron paraphrased what he read in a newspaper a few weeks ago.

"_Very good, Aaron._" reading from the booklet in front of her, Miss Haley began to explain the BR Act, "_It is not complicated at all really. BR Act, or more correctly, Section 21 of Part II of the "_**_Millennium Education Reform Act_**_". Simply says that each year a class will be chosen at random to participate in a game. The game takes place on a remote island. The game takes a maximum of 72 hours to determine a winner, if a winner is not determined within 72 hours, then all participates are determined to be losers. Each game has one and only one winner. The winner of the game is entered into the Civil Service fast track program. OK. Any questions?_"

There was a short pause as everyone let that information sink in. Then Aaron hesitantly put up his hand, followed by a few other hands. Miss Haley gestures at Aaron, who spoke more slowly than he did last time, "_So, what happens to the losers?_"

"_Very good question. The losers die. That's the difference between the winners and the losers. The losers are dead, and the winner is still alive._" Miss Haley smiled again, "_And of course, I am teaching you the BR Act today because you, Class 11NH of Coalsfield Community High School, has been chosen for the game this year! It is a great honour to be the first class to participate in the game, we will be doing our bit for our Harmonious Society(!)_" She looked over at the old Lt, who has been looking increasingly shocked.

_

_"What do we have to do?"_

_"What do you mean the losers die?"_

_"Why are we here?"_

_"Why are we chosen? Who chose us? Why us?"_

… … …

The flood of questions came in, the students all shouted over each other, making it impossible to pick out a particular question to answer. But, Miss Haley didn't need to answer any particular question, she just carried on with the explanation. "_…Each of you will be given…_", the students kept on talking in panic. "_…Each of you will…_" she raised her voice, but it didn't help.

**BANG!** The Major pulled out his pistol and fired a shot upwards. The classroom immediately fell silent. The groups in the class tightened up a little. Jane burst out in tears, with the flakes falling from the ceiling, the prospect of killing or dying became real for her. Constance squeezed her hand and hugged her, then she found tears welling up in her eyes too, she might have to kill Jane soon. The tears fell and as she shook her head, the tears zigzagged across her cheeks. She sobbed, and said softly "_No, … I … won't ever kill my … friends, I won't... I… … won't…. I will… not … kill my … friends... … …_" This only made Jane cry harder.

Miss Haley coughed, and said, "_Anyway. Please pay attention, the next part is very important…_"

"_What if we refuse to participates?!_" Guy shouted, "_I won't kill my friends. I won't kill my friend. I won'…_"

He didn't finish the sentence, because the Major fired his pistol again, this time the bullet landed right next to Guy's left foot, it bounced off the concrete and grazed his right leg, tearing a chuck of meat out of his lower leg before lodging itself in the wall behind. The soldiers behind him jumped at the flash of light before their eyes, they looked at the hole in the wall, and then turned to the Major with angry eyes.

The Major ignored them, and calmly said to Guy, "_If you refuse to participate, then you are a loser by default. I will be forced to kill you. Is that understood?_"

Guy told himself to block out the pain in his leg, he must stand tall no matter how painful that leg is, it will support him, he knows it. "_Yes, OKay. But I'm not going to do it, I won't kill my friends, and that's that."_

The soldiers behind him shuffled away from the likely line of the bullet. The Major asked the teacher whether she will act as witness for Guy's refusal to participate. Miss Haley nodded. The Major turned to Guy again, but just as he was about to shoot, Guy collapsed onto the floor. Someone sitting on the floor next to him hit his right knee, and saved his life.

_

"_You still want to die?_" The Major lowered his pistol at Guy.

"_Yer, shoot me. I would rather die than kill my…_" Cortez interrupted him and at the same time he moved in front of Guy, blocking the Major's shot.

"_Sorry sir. My friend is not thinking clearly, he acts stupid like this sometimes. Please forgive him._" Cortez turned to Guy, and gestured for him to shut up.

"_No, I'm not stupid. I'm thinking very clearly right now,_" Guy tries to get up again as he shouts, "_and you know what I'm thinking Cortez? I'm thin…_" Cortez dragged him down and blocked his mouth with his hand. Guy tried to break free of Cortez, and in the moment he wrestled away the hand blocking his mouth, he blurted out, "_I'm thinking, I won't kill you for my life, Cortez. You hear me, huh? Maybe you would kill me. Fine. But I'm not going to kill you, no matter what._"

Cortez wasn't as strong as Guy, he struggled to keep a hold of Guy, but thanks to Guy's injured leg, he struggled to get up. Cortez shouted to Luke, "_You want to see this idiot kill himself? C'mon! Help me._"

Luke pretended to be in shock for a moment, and then thought he shouldn't take too long thinking about it, so he jumped on Guy as well, and together with Cortex they pinned him face down onto the ground. Though Guy was now shouting insults at them "_You S.O.B.s get off me, let him kill me! I want to die! I want to show these bastar… …_" Cortez took off his tie and jammed it into Guy's mouth.

"_Sorry sir. Forgive him, he doesn't really mean it. He will be alright in a minute._"

The Major laughed at the sight of them struggling with each other. He said to Cortez, "_I'm going to do your friend a big favour,__ I'm not going to shoot him right now. He can thank you for it later._"

_

Finally, Miss Haley was able to explain the last few rules of the game uninterrupted, though accompanied by the occasional sobbing from Jane or muffled shout from Guy, both noises died out as she talked. You will exit by a predetermined random draw, ladies first, 5 minutes separating each departure to prevent massacres just outside of the school. As you move down the corridor, each of you would get a necklace, which you have to wear in order to participate, remembering that not participating means being shot on the spot. Each of you would get a bag, which contains:

**A map of the island;**

**A pen;**

**A compass;**

**A random weapon, which could be anything from a paper fan to a submachine gun;**

**… If you are lucky, the bag will have some food and water in it too; if you are unlucky, then you'd better find someone who was lucky.**

Also, roughly every six hours a number of zones on the map will be designated danger zones, if you do not exit the danger zones within an hour, the metal necklace would explode. If you try to escape the island, the necklace will explode. If you try to remove the necklace, the necklace will explode. The school and the village will be the first danger zone, and be activated an hour after the last student leaves, so anyone trying to launch an attack on the school will be killed by the necklace.

_

OK. No more questions? Then let the games begin!

_


	3. Walking The Walk: 32 students remaining

**Chapter 2: Walking the walk**

**_**

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_"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing."_

Edmund Burke

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_

Miss Haley unfolded a piece of paper, and began reading it aloud,

"_When I read out your name, please walk out of the classroom and down the corridor to the school gates. Once you are out of the school gates, the game begins. You will receive the necklace and your bag in the corridor. _

_Now, Coalsfield Community High school, class of 2016, NH, will enter the game in the following order:_

_Ann, girl numb…_"

"_Can you wait a moment please, Miss._" The old Lt walked up to Miss Haley and interrupted her. He picked up the teapot from the floor and refilled his cup. Then, with an infinitesimal amount of movement from his wrist, the teapot went flying towards the Major.

The Major instinctively went to catch the teapot; then split seconds later, moved to dodge the teapot; then another split second later, he realised it was a trick, and raised his pistol in the general direction of Miss Haley. The tea and the teapot flying towards him obscured his aim momentarily. By the time the teapot has smashed itself on the double glazed window behind him, the old Lt has already grabbed Miss Haley with his left arm and held her in front of him while pointing his pistol at the Major. Instantly the squad of six SRR men raised their submachine guns at the old Lt. While the old Lt's unit couldn't wipe the shock off their faces, and a couple of them indecisively raised their rifles in the general direction of the windows, towards the SRR men. Then seeing their neighbours weren't as eager to defend their Lt, the few conscripts awkwardly started to lower their rifles.

"_Do you know what you are doing?"_

"_I shall not stand aside and see you force children kill each other. Not over my dead body._" The old Lt turned to his conscripts standing against the wall, "_Do you think it's right to let them do this? Don't just blindly follow mad orders. Think, man. Think! Do you want these children …_"

"_This is mutiny. Do you understand Lieutenant?! Smith, George, block the door."_ Two SRR men moved straight through the stunned students, and stood in front of the door. The Major then ordered the Lt's men to stand down. The few conscripts who had their rifles pointing awkwardly at something somewhere there, now lowered them and pretended they never did anything. They were relieved to be out of this jam. "_I'm going to count to three, Lieutenant, then I will be forced to shoot her, then I will shoot you. Do you understand Lieutenant?!_"

"_… This is not right._" The old Lt appealed to his men. His soldiers exchanged quick glances with each other, a few of them once again feeling the rifle in their hands. But the paralysing thought in their heads was, _the old Lt is right, but why should I be the first one to stand out and defend him, isn't XXX closer to him? Let's wait and see what everyone else does first. _The students looked at each other each even more even more blankly. The immediate need for survival in the face of the SRR men's gun barrels overcame any desire for action. Even Guy has calmed down enough to realise that jumping at the Major empty handed would mean certain death, and he didn't really have that much desire to die.

_

"**_ONE!_**"

The old Lt continued to appeal to the soldiers, "_Men. I'm ordering you, as your commanding officer, to go and disarm these thugs. We shall not kill these children tonight._" A couple of conscripts felt the itch to move once again and shuffled towards SRR men, but seeing how much they stood out from the line of soldiers hugging the wall with their backs, they awkwardly shuffled back. The conscripts were all fresh out of high school, just one year older than the students, as they looked onto these helpless students, they subconsciously pressed their backs against the wall even more firmly, as if a knife would chop off their nose if they exposed half an inch more than their neighbour. They have never loved their uniforms more than tonight.

"**_TWO!_**"

The old Lt saw the hopelessness of his position, his hand trembled as he shouted at the soldiers, "_Can't you see what's happening here?!_"

"**_THREE…_**"

"**_NO!!! DON'T SHOOT!_**" Miss Haley screamed in terror, filling the room with her desperate last gasp at life, before the sound of the Major's third word could fade. She twisted and lounged forwards, withdrew her knife, and stabbed backwards with all of her energy. The knife went very deep into the old Lt's stomach, until the top of the wooden handle has gone in too and she could feel the blood bursting out against her thumb and finger.

Two shots rang out in the air. The Major's bullet cut Miss Haley's hair and went right through the old Lt's shoulder. The Lt didn't want to shoot, but after he felt the pain in his stomach and shoulder, he knew this was his last chance to do anything at all, so he pulled the trigger. His bullet hit the badge on the Major's cap, deflecting it upwards, it struck and shattered the already cracked window behind the Major. That, was divine intervention. If the Major was half an inch taller, or wore his cap at a slightly different angle, then who knows what would have happened next? Maybe 31 lives in that class would have been spared, or maybe the SRR men would have slaughtered everyone in the room. Nobody would ever know. Perhaps this is the sort of thing that makes historians sigh and wonder what if, when reading thick books late into the night many years later. But in the meantime, what really happened was what mattered to the class of 11NH.

Miss Haley quickly freed herself from the old Lt's now loosened grip, and lied down on the floor immediately. The Major continued shooting at the old Lt, until he has emptied his pistol clip. The blood splashed out of the old Lt's body and drenched Miss Haley from head to toe. The students near the old Lt twisted their faces away from the blood fountain.

_

The Major walked over to help Miss Haley get up. "_I'm sorry Miss. I didn't want to shoot you. As you must understand the government policy is to never negotiate with terrorists. And I must place the mission above all else."_

"_The mission? That's all you care about, huh?! Go ahead with your mission! Go on!_" Miss Haley stomped off, pushing the SRR men at the door aside, and continued to shout as she walked down the corridor. "_Who the Fk do you think you are?!_"

The Major chuckled, pointed at a couple of the Lt's conscripts and ordered them to go and find a shower and some clean clothes for Miss Haley. Then he bent down and fished out that piece of paper from under the blood pool, and began shaking the blood off it. "_Thank God for laser printing, eh?"_ No one laughed. Amber was irritated by the blood raining down on her. The Major noticed this, he patted Amber on the shoulder and comforted her, "_You are a good girl, but be stronger. A bit of blood is good for you_." he chuckled again, and held the red paper up against the light. The ink on the paper was just about still readable.

"_Coalsfield Community High school, class of 2016, NH, will enter the game in the following order:_

_Ann, girl number one._"

_

A short, tanned girl stood up in the middle of the classroom. She slowly walked to the door, stepping around the other students. A couple of the more observant girls were asking themselves, is that tan really from her family holiday to Egypt during the New Year holiday, as she wouldn't shut up about? But surely not, that was three weeks ago. Must be fake then. At that thought, they held their head slightly higher, thinking, how vain is she?! Of course, Ann had more pressing things to worry about right now than her tan. She paused at the door, thinking about whether she should say something to her classmates, before it all starts. She couldn't think of anything to say, but she turned around anyway, and looked at her classmates, sitting there on the floor, looking back up at her. An empty emotion overwhelmed her, it wasn't hatred or love or any other emotion she ever felt before. She couldn't describe how it felt, but the feeling was definitely overwhelming, pushing tears into her eyes.

"Ah! C'mon! Get a move on, girl. We don't have all day!" The Major waved his hand at her, gesturing for her to get out.

Ann suddenly said very rapidly, "_I love you guys!_" Then she quickly turned around without waiting for a reaction from her classmates, and ran out of the door. She didn't even know why she said that, she just felt like it was her turn, and she had to say something. No use thinking about it now, she put it out of her mind immediately, and grabbed the necklace on the desk to her left. The soldier stopped her, recorded her name and necklace serial number on a clip board, checked that it was locked on correctly, and then asked her whether it was too tight. She replied it's OK. Then another soldier passed her a big black sports bag, which looked very empty to her. She didn't take it and asked to change it for another bag, and surprised the soldier with this seemingly unusual request. The soldier took the bag back and was just about to pick up another one, when the other soldier with the clipboard tapped him on the arm, and said "_Hey, wait a sec, let's check it's OK with the Major first. The bags all have serials, I have to record who has what, I don't want mix ups._" Then he ran up the corridor and into the classroom.

Ann stood there with watery eyes. The little girl looked up at the tall SRR soldier holding the bag. Her skirt waved from side to side, twisting slighting, in that natural gesture small girls holding a handbag with both hands tend to overuse; as if she couldn't stand still against some invisible wind. Looking down at her, the soldier couldn't help but feel a wave of sympathy, how can this girl survive out there in the storm? He dragged out the fullest bag he could see and thrust it into her hands, the bag looked almost as big as the girl, and for a moment he wasn't sure whether it wasn't too heavy for her to hold. But she surprised him again, by grabbing it with both of her hands, then throwing it over her shoulders and running off with it immediately, without looking back while shouting in a very sweet voice "_Thank you very much!_"

In the meantime, the soldier with clipboard saluted the Major, and asked about swapping bags. The Major looked at him as if looking at some moron, and shouted "_Of course they can't just pick and choose whatever they want! You pick out bags randomly and give it to them. They have to be random, do you understand?_"

"_But sir, if we are picking them, how can they be random?_"

"_Stop asking question, go and do your damn job!_"

"_Yes sir!_" The soldier saluted again, and ran back down the corridor, just in time to hear Ann shout back her gratitude. He noticed the fuller bag over her shoulder as he went back to his post, and grinned at his fellow soldier, "_She gave you blow job or something? What's with the sweet thanks, eh?_"

"What are you on about?" His comrade looked at him seriously.

"_Never mind. So what's the serial of that bag then?_"

The bag soldier handed him the sticker with the serial on it, and he stuck it on his form, without wiping the grin from his face. "_You know you are just a big softie, you know that, yer?_"

"_Oh really? You want to take this outside?_" The bag soldier grinned back at the clipboard soldier, but he knew his friend was right. Yes, he probably would be able to beat up half of his squad on his own in a fist fight, but if he was out there tonight, he probably wouldn't survive long enough to see the sunrise tomorrow. He has just been played by that girl.

_

_

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**Thank you very much for reading! If you have followed the story thus far, then please click that review button and leave me a few words, it would be much appreciated. If you like it, tell me what you like about it; if you hate it, tell me what you hate about it. And no matter what you thought of it, squeeze out a reccommendation for me, so other people will get a chance to read it.**


	4. Talking The Talk: 32 students remaining

**Chapter 3: Talking the talk**

_

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"_Broken Promises don't upset me. I just think why did they believe me?"_

Jack Handy

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_

The Major set a silent alarm on his black military watch, then went over to the broken window and looked out across the football field at the back of the school. He enjoyed the cool rain sweeping into the class room and falling on his face. He chuckled again and fetched a cigarette from his packet. The soldier next to him was still standing guard, but he quickly took out a lighter and lit his officer's cigarette. Soon, the faint smell of tobacco drifted around in the room.

Since the students have learned about the BR Act, there has been so much action happening around them, they didn't have any time to react to anything at all. All of it seemed like a dream up to now, and a few of them has been secretly pinching themselves in a futile attempt to wake up from this nightmare. Now that Ann, the first student has left the room and the clock is ticking down for the next girl, the anxiety crept up, as they finally have some time to think and reflect on what was happening around them. Some people started making promises to their friends right away, about how they will never kill each other; some others were more realistic and started making arrangements about how to meet up after they go out of the classroom; while a few more rebellious ones started discussing in hushed voices about how to disable the necklace or how to attack the school. There were a few students who just sat there on their own, but the awkwardness of being alone in such a crowd, with so many pairs of eyes from the soldiers seemingly staring at you soon got the better of them. They first tried closing their eyes and thinking about how they would hide and avoid interactions, then they got distracted by the sounds of the conversations all around them and how their classmates deliberately kept their voices low to prevent them from hearing it. They began to feel a burning sensation in that cold room, and soon it became overwhelming enough for them to reluctantly shuffle over to the nearest friendly group or just towards each other, and say hello. Considering the nature of the game demanded them to be the most brutal individualists and kill each other, it was ironic to see how no one wanted to be seen to be on their own in that classroom.

_

Evan shuffled over next to Martin. They have been in the same class since they first started school, and has been playing together ever since. Evan still didn't quite feel like trusting him right at the start though, and besides he was sitting there with his girlfriend, how can anyone go up to a tight couple like that and just start talking? Well, Evan was feeling the need for something to do for the next few hours, even if it meant being the third wheel on a bike. Evan looked at Tania, and joked, "_You just wanted to come on this trip for fun, right? I bet you are regretting it now._"

Of course he knew very well why Tania came on the trip. She wasn't part of 11NH, but Martin was, and they were one of those couples where you couldn't mention one without mentioning the other. She's been hanging around with Martin so much, it was difficult to not think of her as being some possession belonging to Martin, like his clothes. So a few months ago when 11NH was picked as the lucky class going to the Lake District on some free trip, it was natural for her mention to Martin how much she wanted to come along with him. OK, she didn't just mention it, she went on and on about it. How much she loves him, and how she really wants to be in the same class as him, so they can go to lessons together, and go on the trip together, and do everything together... Martin eventually got annoyed at her incessant talking and suggested she should make up some excuse about being bullied and get a transfer to 11NH. She argued against it at first because she disliked the idea of lying to her teachers, and lying to her parents. However, after a few days of moralising about it, she wrote that note and handed it to the deputy head teacher's office. Of course, her request for transferring was rejected immediately, almost as a matter of course. So when she received a letter from the Department of Education a week before the trip, it came as a huge surprise for her.

Martin took her out to a posh restaurant to celebrate. She remembers that night very well because the wine costs £10 a glass at that restaurant, and Martin laughed at how much of a rip off it was. Like all expensive and unobtainable things, the more out of reach something was, the more you want it. So a small argument ensued, which quickly degenerated into kissing over the candle lit table. As soon as they finished the meal, they went over to the supermarket where Cortez worked and bought as many bottles of wine as they could carry. It was kind of funny how Martin handed Cortez his debit card because he didn't have a driving license or any ID at all, and Cortez looked at it all seriously, then told her to stop giggling as he handed the card back. Despite what Cortez said the day after about how little that job meant to him, she knew it wasn't true because she knew where he lived, and she almost wanted to apologise to him for letting him take a big risk like that. She also knew how he would react to an apology, so she saved it and didn't say anything.

They went to Julius Park that night, which was really just a football field at the foot of a big hill. Apparently it used to be a coal mine and that hill was the dirt they dug up. But the mine was closed long before she was born, and trees and grass has long since grown over the fertile black soil. Martin took her to almost the top of the hill, and they laid down on the slope. At that spot where they could hold both the cold starlight in the sky above and the warm glow of the town beneath in their eyes at the same time. She couldn't remember exactly how much she drank or how quickly she downed that bottle to prove that she really likes wine and wasn't just asking him to waste money back at the restaurant. But she remembered perfectly to the letter those promises he made, he told her that she was the most beautiful thing he ever set his eyes on, he told her he would love her and only her, and he promised to love her forever, until the end of time…

_

Back in the classroom, the Major was up to girl number 9 already,

"_Paige, girl number 9._"

Paige sat opposite Cortez, with Luke and Guy the four of them formed a circle. Cortez grabbed her hands tightly. He leaned over and whispered to her, "_Trust no one. Run to the place we agreed on, and don't stop before then. Trust no one._" He leaned closer almost kissing her ear, and whispered quickly in an almost inaudible tone, "_Not even Luke or Guy._" He then kissed her cheek, to cover the fact he ever said that last phrase. Guy looked away towards the windows and saw the storm outside has worsened. Luke looked on at Paige's face in front of him, but he couldn't hear any of the words Cortez whispered to her. From the length of time they spent leaning over like that, before they kissed goodbye, he suspected Cortez might have whispered something to her. As Paige walked over to the door and blew Cortez a kiss, Luke put his thumb up at Paige and shouted "_Remember to wait for us, we'll protect you!_"

Paige smiled at them. Then she walked out of the room.

_

The three boys shuffled to close the gap Paige left behind. Luke put a hand on Cortez's shoulder and told him Paige will do just fine out there. Cortez sighed. He followed Guy's gaze to the window and looked at the storm still raging on outside. Guy spoke to Cortez without turning to look at him, "_Do you love her?_"

"_Yes_."

"_Does she love you?_"

"_Yes._"

"_Then you have nothing to worry about. God loves lovers._"

None of them were that religious, even though Cortez followed his mum to church every Sunday, he had his doubts about the man upstairs. Guy didn't even go to church. So Cortez almost found this hopelessly romantic comment funny. His mouth curved, but it wasn't quite a smile. Maybe Guy was right, now, in this game of BR, all that matters is that she loves him.

Although in normal life, where all of the other normal factors like looks and social status are taken into consideration. And many people did bother themselves with considering those factors in other people's relationship. It can almost be said that Cortez and Paige were an odd couple.

Cortez did everything a high school boy could do, and he did all of these things brilliantly. He is the centre forward on the school football team. Last year he scored more goals in the national under 15 league than any other player, and almost single handily took the team all the way to the finals, where they lost in extra time. At the beginning of this year, the team voted for him to be the team captain even though he didn't put himself forward for it. In fact at some point in the last 5 years he played just about every sport the school had a team for, from Rugby to Ping Pong. His speed and reaction time is unrivalled in the school and a legend around the city. He aced all of his subjects effortlessly, and at the parents evening most of his teachers skipped all of the boring reports stuff and told his parents Cortez has a future in Science or Literature or whatever course he took. But what really made him real in people's imaginations was how he managed to be on the friends invite lists for most of the year group. Guy often used him as a people directory, asking him about who is who and who did what. Most people were really surprised when he took on a part time job at the local supermarket after New Year, because how could he possibly have the time for work?! Cortez has many different nicknames among his many friends; the most appropriate was probably "the clone", the reason is perhaps self explanatory. (The author himself would not even have believed people like this existed, but for having seen such people in flesh and blood. Cortez himself however is NOT based on any of the author's friends.)

In contrast, Paige was a girl no one really knew much about. She wasn't pretty, or sexy, or even fashionable. She dressed plainly and didn't use any make up that was visible to the boys. She was not tall, but not short; not fat, but not thin; not particularly curved, but her chest and legs do stand out as they should; so what anyone could really say about her is that she's average. And until she became Cortez's girlfriend, what she did in her time outside of school was a mystery to most people except her close circle of friends. Since she became Cortez's girl, many people has spent their time talking about who she was, so that her hobbies and interests became objects of her classmates' casual conversations. So it became known that she often played badminton with her friends on weekends, and her relationship with Cortez didn't start in the classroom but on the badminton court. It also became known that she had weekly piano lessons and played the piano quite well, though not many people ever had the good fortune of hearing it. And as people would expect, she spent most of her time doing the usual things a teenage girl does, reading, movies, gossiping, day dreaming, and the occasional party where she always left early and never got drunk. She did averagely in her classes, but since Cortez started tutoring her on Sundays, she has improved considerably.

So you can see why that when Cortez first got together with Paige last year, most people thought he was just toying around. But as winter turned to summer and he still stayed with her, the gossip picked up again and people began to speculate whether Paige was Bill Gates' secret daughter. Then as summer turned to winter again and he still stayed with her, people realised Bill Gates has no secret daughter, and the gossip died down again. Of course, during that time, there have been several waves of rumours about Cortez and some pretty blonde or sexy brunette, and each wave always sounded more plausible than the last. There were stories of how Cortez told Paige about those extra curriculum activities he's been taking, and how Paige told him she would forgive him for anything as long as he was honest with her, and as long as he loved only her. Based on those stories, some vile tongues began calling Paige all sorts of names, but of course even without any smoke or fire, some people will always whisper nastily at the wind just out of jealousy.

Other than Cortez himself, only a handful of people truly understood this relationship. One of them was none other than the person he went jogging with in the mornings, Luke. Luke completely understood why he chose Paige, even before Cortez explained it to him and Guy. What Cortez wanted in his life was not a bright flower that lasts one night and loses its beauty in the morning; or a fragile vase that's pretty to look at and a pride possession take around but shatters at the tiniest bump. What Cortez wanted was a constant, like that humble number pi that simplifies so many calculations; a rock, like a marble foundation stone on which the wonders of the world were built; and most importantly, a girl, who will always love him unconditionally, regardless of circumstances.

_

Back in the classroom, a lot has happened after Paige left. Their teacher, Miss Haley, returned just after girl number 11. She had a shower in the military tent the evacuation troops set up a week ago, because the shower in the school changing rooms only had cold water. The SRR soldiers promptly gathered together a spare set of uniform for her. So she threw away her sexy outfit, which was now covered in blood, and came back wearing baggy camouflaged uniforms that were two sizes too large for her.

"_Welcome back, Miss._" The Major promptly walked over and made a gesture holding the chair for her. "_I'm sorry about what happened before. Would you like a cup of tea or coffee? We still have a long night ahead._"

"_Coffee please._" Miss Haley sat in the chair.

"_Yes Miss._" The Major waved at one of the SRR soldiers by the door, go make coffee.

"_Why don't you get some chairs for you and your men too?_" Many eyes full of gratitude immediately met Miss Haley's as she looked around the room.

"_Men, you may sit down on the ground, but if any of these little buggers get unruly, shoot without questions. Is that understood?" _The Major picked up his walkie talkie and asked the the reserve platoon to make some dinner for the troops. Since the Captain was shipped out with the returning helipcopters and he shot the old Lt, he had to promote a couple of NCOs and place their troops under his direct command.

The soldiers sat down with relief. The other SRR soldier by the door gladly went out to carry out these orders, presumably he is called Smith. As the students looked at his departure, their hunger and thirst multiplied many fold. None of them had anything to eat since breakfast, and some of them didn't even eat breakfast. The thought of asking for some water or food has occurred to most of them before, but the thought of making requests of this murderer in front of them with blood soaked boots made them swallow their questions down with their saliva. Now their teacher has returned, and she looks like the authority in the room, it made the students a lot more at ease, even her association with BR didn't make her look that monstrous. Maybe it was because she has been their teacher since the start of high school, and they have spent so many hours in the same classroom in those 5 years time. So now with her in charge of the classroom again, a few brave hands shot up in the air.

"_Yes, Dylan, what is it?_"

"_Miss. Hmm, Can, can I go to the toilet? Please?_"

Before Miss Haley could react to his question, the sound of gunfire came from outside. Unmistakably sharp and loud.

Cortez jumped up, and looked at the Major, "What's going on out there?"

First blood is being drawn somewhere out there in the rain … …

_

_

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**Is Paige safe out there on her own? Who is killing who out there? Is Dylan going to pee in his pants or will he be able to go to a toilet? All shall be revealed in the next chapter.**


	5. Author's commentary

**This chapter is a place holder for my comments, because I don't want to use the review button to review myself, :-P. I'll update this chapter every time I update a new chapter for the story, so check here often if you are the sort that likes to go behind the scenes. The first two divider sections below is general comments, for updated commentary on the latest chapter, go to the spoiler alerted section at the bottom of this page.**

This is the first story I have written outside of the essays I had to write for English and History classes in school. So, please don't hesitate to correct my mistakes in spelling, grammar, structure, formatting, storyline, or character development. The story may seem a bit chaotic at times, because of the huge number of characters involved, but that's probably one of the features of BR. So, bear with me, and I'll try my best to make each and every student as alive as possible, before topping them off ':-|. I've decided to not introduce any labels like nerd, jock, chav, high flier, all rounder, and so on… and not to make all of the significant relationships of a character obvious, such as "She has a huge crush on Michael", or "Lisa was her best friend", and so on… because I think it's better for practicing my writing if I showed who each person was and how they relate to others through their actions and thoughts, then you, the reader can make up your mind about who you think they are. Of course, some actions or thoughts might be very clichéd and stereotypical, if you feel that way, then that's an inadequacy in my writing skills, rather than any attempt on my part to introduce labels. I also think it's probably easier for the reader to remember the characters if I introduced them gradually like this, because the number of characters in BR is just too many.

I have a general idea of the story outline, and what kind of characters I want to include, and I've thought up several different scenarios for the ending already, and I'll no doubt think of more as the story progresses. But, the storyline is still very fluid and I'm not sure at all who to kill off first or next. So, if you comment or PM me in time, then you might have a chance of saving your favourite character (No promises though). As for updating speed, hmm, I would try my best to do one chapter every week, but you'd probably have to wait for the summer holidays for my burst of creativity, and the last few chapters of the story.

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_

Currently, I'm trying to avoid long paragraphs or walls of dialogue, but it seems instead I've created an alternate problem of having many paragraphs of the same size going one after another. I'm not sure whether this is a structural problem I should try to fix, or whether you, the readers, don't really mind?

_

After a long late night discussion with a friend of mine on the survivability of different kinds of people, and what people would do in a BR situation, we thought more incentives were needed for people to kill each other, and that girls were at a disadvantage. So, I've tweaked the rules a bit, so the distribution of food and water is random, to encourage more interactions. Also, the order of leaving the classroom has changed to allow the girls to leave first, to give them a head start. I'm not sure about this boy/girl thing in BR, because even if you bumped into someone you didn't know very well, it would still take more will power than strength to kill them. I think girls would probably get more kills than boys in the end, because they are more thinking creatures and more observant of other people socially, and more devious as well. So looking at the original and not counting the transfer studetns, because Kiriyama is a killing machine with no emotions and Kawada is a veteran survivor, so neither is representative of real students in the class. Then you see the best killers were girls:

Mitsuko Souma, 8 kills.

Satomi Noda, (lighthouse poisoning) 3 kills, 3 assists.

_

Another very interesting problem is the definition of a class. Because having gone through part of the Chinese education system ad part of the English education system myself, I feel that a high school class is very different in the Eastern and Western cultures. In many ways there isn't an equivalent of a class in British schools like the class in Battle Royale. I went to a big comprehensive school, with about 1500 students just for the 3 years 9, 10, and 11, meaning there are about 500 people and 17 tutor groups in each year. I went to each subject class with a mostly different set of people than the other subject classes, so if I counted everyone who took a class with me as being my classmate, then I would easily end up with more than 200 people. So, is my tutorial group my class? That was class 11NH when I filled forms for school. But, I only spent 1.5 hours a week with them, which is hardly any time at all to form a class bond, it was just about enough time for me to know everyone's names, and get a rough idea of who everyone was. So should I take my subject classes as my class? I certainly spent much more time with the people in my English, Maths, Science and other subject classes, but they were not always the same group of people. For example, my English class had about 3 people in common with my maths class out of 28 people in each class. So there isn't even such a thing as a subject class, especially when you consider these classes are re organised every year according to last year's exam scores. So I think in English schools, you could probably say, class of 2016, meaning the whole year group of 500 people, but it's difficult to identify a particular set of say, 30 people out of that 500, and point to that and say, that's my high school class.

In comparison, in China, and I think in Japan as well, a class is an actual unit. Where you have all of your subject classes together as well, and sit for the most part, next to the same set of people. So the numbering of girl #5, boy #5, would make more sense, because you could say they sit on the same table in class. More importantly, I think it also means the class is a tighter group of people, so even if you didn't hang around together outside of school, then at least you've spent enough time together in the classroom to have heard enough gossip to know everyone inside out. Also, it means you would very likely have your best friends in your class, and probably more likely to have a love interest in the class as well. That's of course important for BR. Thinking about it, on the annual sports day events, the competition is by class, so everyone is cheering on not just their friends but also their class; and sometimes winning for your class is more important than winning individually. Say if you hurt your ankle and couldn't compete in the sprint, you would still limp down the track, to earn that 1 point for your class.

_

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***Spoiler Alert***

No leaks for the storyline, but below is the Author's view on the characters so far. No connections with what will actually happen to them, but you could put one graph on top of another and call it science, if you want to.

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Chapter 3: Talking the talk is all about love and relationships, because the Major was going through the girls on the list in this chapter, so I thought I needed a feminine topic to write about. I think having 2 flashbacks in one chapter is probably too much, there wasn't enough action.

I skipped most of the characters on the Major's lists, that's because I wanted to have a few well developed and memorable characters first. I felt introducing too many characters one after another would loose the reader's attention, and all of them would end up as unmemorable and flat. As for comments on the characters so far:

_

I think Cortez is slowly creeping up as THE main character. I feel so far he is too good, too perfect, almost to an unreachable level. Though he does has some flaws, such as cheating on Paige and then telling her about it (yes, that wasn't just a rumour). He also told Paige to not trust his best friends. Luke knows he told Paige something, but he doesn't know exactly what it was, he might not even suspect anything. But the Cortez / Luke / Paige trio is beginning to look interesting already.

I actually do know people as perfect as Cortez in real life, so I feel he is not too unrealistic, just extra ordinary. Of course I want some legendary characters people will remember, if you have read this story, and a few years later if you could still remember one or two characters that really were special and stood out for you, then I would have succeded as a writer. BTW, no pigeon holing please.

As for the Cortez x Paige relationship, I have seen this kind of thing a lot in real life, though it's probably much more realistic if they were 5 years older, because I think 16 year old boys wouldn't care about anything other than looks. (I certainly didn't :-P). When you have the world in your hands, and you can have anyone you want, then the only thing that matters is the other person's unconditional devotion to you. Because if you chose someone who loves you, rather than someone you love, then you will be in control of this relationship, and you know you are not going to get burned. It makes perfect sense when you think about it. So if you are some average girl/guy chasing after some perfect person with everything, then I'd say, go for it with all you've got and don't give up, you are much more likely to get it than you think.

_

Tania / Martin / Evan / (Cortez) is the new group introduced in this chapter. Martin x Tania is a very closed couple in comparison, as you can see from Evan's hesitation before shuffling over, and his attitude to being in this group. Of course they do have friends outside of this three, and in a normal social situation, they would all be sitting in some bigger group. But this is not a normal social, this is BR. I think in BR, in that classroom, couples wouldn't have much incentive to sit with bigger groups. The bigger the group, the more people are potentially going to stab you in the back, so it's almost the opposite of a normal social.

Evan is an interesting character, he's best friend Martin has ran off with some girl, and he doesn't have anyone else he's close enough to trust. How will his strategy of hiding it out and avoiding all contact work out for him? Tune in to find out.

_

Dylan briefly mentioned at the very end, notice his demeanour, "_Hmm__, Can, can I go to the toilet? Please?_", this is in sharp contrast to Cortez, who stands up to the Major and asks what's going on out there? Although his worry for Paige gives him temporary confidence.

Also notice Dylan is boy number 12, although he doesn't know it himself. But if he doesn't go to the toilet now, he would have to wait for another 1.5 hours!


End file.
